Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Added November 15th, 2007 by Kenneth Rathburn

World War II has become an extremely popular concept for videogames, especially first-person shooters. In fact, it’s so popular that some popular World War II series such as Medal of Honor have been around for a longer time than the actual war. Three of the most well-received shooters that took place during this era were the first three Call of Duty games. But, after a short while, the charm these World War II-based shooters have begins to wear off. Fortunately, developer Infinity Ward has recognized this and is now bringing the Call of Duty name into the modern era. Welcome to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

While Call of Duty 4 is set in a modern day setting, the story in the single player mode is completely fictional. In typical Call of Duty fashion, the game puts you in the boots of more than one character in the single player campaign. Here, you’ll switch between a soldier in the US Marine Corp and the British SAS. The story unfolds back and forth between events occurring through your character’s point of view and exchanges of dialogue during the load screens. As with previous Call of Duty games, Modern Warfare tries to make the story interesting, but it just feels like another fictional and typical modern day war story.

Not much has changed in Call of Duty 4 as far as the core gameplay is concerned. While there are a few added touches like being able to sprint and having new weapons to spice things up, the formula is still the same. The best strategy in the game is to hold the Left Trigger to aim down your sights so you can get the best shot. Otherwise if you try firing from the hip, it’s unlikely you’ll achieve many, if any kills at all. Fortunately, the Call of Duty games have been prime examples of how to make the gameplay in a shooter work well. The familiarity proves to work to the game’s benefit.

While new weapons might just be one new feature added to the game, they really go a long way here. Since the series is taking a departure from the conventional semi-automatic rifles and old submachine guns, it leaves a lot of room open for new firearms to toy around with. The weapons are all based realistically on their real-life counterparts and it’s easy to feel a little bit of Counter-Strike and Rainbow Six déjà vu. Aside from the standard assault and sniper rifles, machineguns and side arms there are grenade launcher attachments, C4 and claymore explosives, and a few other armaments available. The variety in these weapons is quite impressive and you’ll more than likely find yourself going back to the game just for the sake of trying out a pair of different weapons.

About the only thing that makes it hard to experiment with all the weapons is the length of the game, offline at least. Previous Call of Duty games had single players that could be beaten anywhere from eight to twelve hours. Modern Warfare, however, can be completed in as little as six or even five hours if you’re really well-experienced at any kind of shooter. Fortunately, the game has that short but sweet touch to it, so the few hours the single player lasts is fun all the way till the end. When you beat the game you’ll unlock an arcade mode, which basically takes how well you do in a mission and gives you scores based on your performance. So while it’s short, there’s plenty of incentive to head back and play it a few more times.

But for most players, the real reason they’ll keep coming back is for the game’s online multiplayer portion. Like its predecessor, Call of Duty 4 has support for up to twenty-four people online simultaneously, so look out for plenty of blazing guns and explosions out there. As with several other shooters, Modern Warfare’s strengths mostly lie in its online portion. The gameplay is deeper than the single-player, requires a lot more thought and strategy and does more than outshine the offline portions.

When you start playing online your options will be very limited; only two types of matches will be available and you’ll have to stick with pre-selected classes. However, after a few matches your rank will increase and before long you’ll be able to create your own class. But even after being able to create your own class there you’ll still need to improve your rank to unlock more content. Most of this content includes new guns, weapon attachments and accessories; all of which become deadlier the further you improve your rank. Every kill you get is factored into your account to raise your rank; the more points you earn the better. Creating your character class is very simple; you’ll choose a primary weapon, sidearm, grenade type and choose what Perks your character has.

Perks are a new feature to the series. They basically alter your character to give you an edge against the competition. You can apply up to three different Perks to your character, which range from increasing your health, stopping power, making your bullets penetrate deeper, increase your general accuracy and so much more. While it might sound like the option to put on Perks is cheating they do so much that you can overwhelm the entire battlefield. Besides, when most of the people you’ll encounter online have Perks turned on, it’s anyone’s game either way.

The online mode also has another nice little feature to entice you to compete at the top of your game. If you manage to get three kills without dying then you can call on a UAV drone to scan and reveal where your enemies are located on your mini-map. Get another two kills after that without dying and you can call an airstrike to sweep by and bombard an area of the map of your choosing three times. And if you achieve two more kills after that, then you’ll have a helicopter lend you a hand with killing anyone who dares to defy you. Not only that, but using these rewards will yield you more points towards your profile; so there’s no reason why you shouldn’t try your hardest while online. Oh and there are sixteen maps included with the game, so those should be more than enough to keep you busy until more content is released.

With so much offered in the game, it’s easy to think Call of Duty 4 would suffer from unimpressive visuals. However, this turns out to be quite the opposite. Modern Warfare doesn’t just look good, it looks fantastic; easily one of the best-looking games out there. If you’re looking to find a game that will undoubtedly impress your friends with visual flair, Call of Duty 4 will do more than suffice. Not only that, but the game always runs at a smooth sixty frames per second and lag online is surprisingly rare. Needless to say, Call of Duty 4’s going to offer plenty of moments which will impress you thanks to how well it’ll render everything.

One area that the Call of Duty series has always excelled at is the sound, so it’s expected that Modern Warfare have a similar effect of impressing. Oddly enough, the sound is actually one of the game’s weaker points, but this isn’t really a low blow since the game does sound impressive regardless. The main reason why the game doesn’t sound as impressive as previous titles is mainly due to the voiceovers; they almost sound like they were taken directly from previous games. For those that remember playing through the British portions of the campaign in Call of Duty 2, Captain Price will sound awfully familiar to them. Everything else in the game sounds amazing; everything comes together exceptionally well and gives off a feeling like you’re in the middle of World War 3.

At the end of the day, Call of Duty 4 is a superb accomplishment that has already shown it has what it takes to at least get a Game of the Year nomination. The single player may be rather short for a Call of Duty game, but there’s plenty of reason to keep coming back over and over. The drift into the modern age has helped the series come out of its shell and reach new grounds, and it’s easily the best installment in the series yet. If you’re looking for a shooter to make you remove Halo 3 or The Orange Box from you Xbox 360 for a while, this will do the trick.